Collection of Birds from the Mediterranean. 181 



last week in May, and then only one bird is found sitting. 

 They are the latest of the three Tubinares that breed at 

 Filfola Island. 



[The stomach of one specimen is noted as containing thick 

 orange-coloured oily matter ; that of another a small fish's 

 eye and what appeared to be green seaweed. — H, F. IF.] 



PUFFINUS PUFFINUS YELKOUAN (Accrbi). 



From Sardinia eastward and especially at Crete the 

 Levantine Shearwater was met with abundantly, never far 

 from rocky and precipitous coasts, and apparently all the year 

 round in the vicinity of its breeding-haunts. On Poudiko 

 Kisi, an island precipitous on its western face, a Levantine 

 Shearwater was found sitting on a fresh e^^ at 500 feet above 

 sea-level on 27th April. 



At Filfola Island (xMalta) on 6tli May, 1906, three small 

 young, and on 14tli May a few backward chicks about half 

 grown, were the only tenants of the numerous breeding- 

 crannies, which shewed every evidence of having contained 

 young earlier that year. 



The fact of not finding at least some chicks nearly ready to 

 fly might be accounted for by their having left their nests 

 before being able to fly, or they may have been taken for 

 food by the Maltese fishermen, who constantly visit the 

 island, but the former suggestion is not supported by any 

 direct evidence, and could hardly apply in the case of the 

 Pondiko Nisi nest on a precipitous ledge 500 feet above 

 the water. 



This is the earliest of the three Tubinares to breed at 

 Filfola Island. 



PUFFINUS KUHLI KUHLI (Boic). 



The Mediterranean Shearwater was met with all over the 

 Mediterranean, often in company with the last species. 



At Filfola Island on 6th May (1906) and again on 

 14th May (1907) ^ovq.q pairs were found squatting together 

 in nesting-holes, but no eggs had been laid. Laying seems 

 to commence about the third week in May, a little earlier 

 than that of the Storm-Petrel. 



